Daily Research News Online no. 2433 - Americans Accept Government Line on Iraq War

Americans Accept Government Line on Iraq War

June 20 2003

According to the latest Harris Poll, a majority of Americans believe that what they were told by the government before the Iraq war about Weapons of Mass Destruction and links to Al Qaeda was generally accurate. More than two thirds of all adults believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and more than one third believe that the US has found clear evidence of these weapons.

Almost half of all adults (48%) believe that the US has also found clear evidence that Iraq was supporting Al Qaeda. It is therefore no surprise that a 56% to 37% majority rejects the idea that the U.S. government deliberately exaggerated the reports of weapons of mass destruction in order to increase support for the war.

The basic message is that a majority of Americans feel satisfied with the justification for and conduct of the war - they trust the original motives, in many cases regardless of what is now found. Fully 40% of Americans believe that even if it turns out that Iraq had no significant weapon of mass destruction, and there were no links to Al Qaeda, they were still told the truth.

The degree of cross-party support for the war is evident from the fact that the majority of independents and a sizeable proportion of Democrats (59% and 41% respectively) say they believe that what they were told by the U.S. government before the war was generally accurate. This rises to 72% among Republicans. Allowing for Don't Knows, only a fraction over half (51%) of Democrats believe that the U.S. government deliberately exaggerated the incriminating reports.

Fully 57% of Republicans would believe that the public were told the truth, even if it turns out that Iraq had no significant weapons of mass destruction and there were no links to Al Qaeda. Under these circumstances, most (63%) Democrats and 56% of independents, but only 32% of Republicans, would believe that they were misled.

The Harris Poll interviewed 1,011 adults nationwide by telephone between June 10 and 15, 2003.

Editor's note
These results make an interesting contrast to results from an Ipsos-Reid poll in Canada earlier in the week, which showed that:

seven in ten Canadians (71%) now feel their PM was justified in not supporting the U.S.-led coalition
59% of Canadians believe the U.S. knowingly used incorrect or fabricated intelligence to justify the attack on Iraq (42%) or believe intelligence was simply incorrect (17%)
only one in three now believe that reports of Weapons of Mass Destruction were correct and that the coalition has just not found the evidence yet

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.